A sociolinguistic perspective on immersion programmes in Malta

Abstract

Recent large-scale sociolinguistic studies regarding the bilingual proficiency of the Maltese people have repeatedly shown a steady decline in the standards of English language proficiency. The data acquired for the purposes of this study is meant to highlight the necessity for a radical change, from the way bilingual education is conducted locally. Qualitative and quantitative data obtained during the execution of fieldwork for this present study, does not only corroborate previous research findings, but offers the views of the three groups of people who comprise the education triangle, namely the teacher, the parent and of course, the child. The data obtained from the qualitative interviews with primary school teachers, clearly showed that most teachers, irrespective of gender, age or region, all agreed that they were dissatisfied with children's levels of English proficiency, particularly with the spoken aspect of English. Students clearly lacked the necessary fluency required of a second language speaker. All teachers, irrespective of the type of school they worked at, welcomed the prospect of alternative second language programmes and moreover, the prospect of having immersion programmes introduced was greeted, because of the fact that these language programmes advocated additive bilingualism, which would enable students to work with a demanding educational curriculum, which truly has bilingualism at its base. The quantitative phase of this study which targeted parents as its respondents, revealed that the overwhelming majority of Maltese children (75%) used their native-tongue when interacting in the home domain. Data obtained from the interviews with parents also showed that in the school domain, which is for most Maltese children the sole provider of English input, 67% of parents believed that their child interacted with the teachers in Maltese. Asked about the language used by the children in class, 69% respondents confirmed Maltese as the class language. Once again, all respondents, were willing to learn about alternative additive bilingual education programmes that would offer their children improved chances for academic and social success in their personal life as well as in the work domain.